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“Oscar said there was one, but I thought
he made the story up to flush out the Blues. He said Lou told him he had
a video, but I didn't think Oscar believed him. I thought you and I were
just decoys.”
“Then what were you arguing about with
him on the phone?”
“That was staged. Or at least I thought
it was. They have spies everywhere.”
“Well, I'm going to look at this tape
right now. I guess you'll have to look at it later, since you will need
to stand so close in order to be able to see it.”
“I think I should look at it first.
Maybe you shouldn't see it. I need to ask Oscar.”
“Go ahead and use the upstairs phone.
But I am going to look at this video.”
She started the tape. Henry was still
at the front door.
“Can you see anything?”
“I sure can.” The camera must
have been hidden up high, maybe in a bookcase. It showed the interior
of a room, possibly a den or office. A man, thick shouldered and powerful
was sitting behind a huge mahogany desk directly in front of the camera.
Behind the man there was a gun cabinet filled with rifles. On either side
of the desk, the walls were hung with mounted animal heads. Mostly African.
The man appeared to be waiting. He ran his hands over his crewcut hair
and watched the door to his right, which was ajar.
Someone very small slipped through
the door. It happened so quickly, Edna had to rerun the tape to be sure
of what she had seen. The person had gone to the back of the room, out
of the camera's view. Lou, for she was sure that was who the big man was,
got up, smiling. He said something, but the sound had not recorded well.
Possibly the camera was too far away.
She could hear a second voice, nearer
the camera but still indistinct. Though she could not make out the words,
the tone was clear. The little person was afraid. Edna wondered how he
had been induced to come into that room. Henry never would have. If they
needed Lou for their plan, maybe they had thought it was necessary. Maybe
they thought they had Lou so much under control that it would not be dangerous.
They were wrong.
On the tape, the man got up and closed
the door. Still holding the door shut with one hand, he reached out with
the other and pulled his massive desk over and jammed it against the door.
The next five minutes were chaotic, with only scraps visible on the film.
Lou walked around the room with his arms out wide, laughing. The little
person ran like a wild animal in a trap, climbing the walls and tearing
at the door. Even in the small space of the office, he was so quick that
the big man could not touch him. He did catch him finally, out of sight
of the camera. The small creature had seemed about to collapse from exhaustion.
Lou reappeared in the camera's view. He had his captive by the arm, dangling.
Edna watched about thirty seconds
more of the tape and then turned it off. What Lou did next was unbearable
to watch. She felt sick. She left the tape in the machine for Henry. He
had been on the phone all this time, talking excitedly to Oscar.
“I'm coming upstairs.”
“Okay, okay.” She heard him make
hasty good-byes and then thump out the door.
“You can watch the tape now. It's in
the VCR.”
“What was on it?”
“Can you see and comprehend video,
Henry? I know in real life you would only see blurry things.”
“I can recognize voices. I can see
what they're doing on tape because the video is sharp, but it is hard
for me to understand it because that's not what I normally see.”
“Okay. Go ahead and look at it.
Let me know if you need help.”
“Oscar thinks this may be devastating
evidence against the leader of the Blues. He's supposed to be on the tape.”
Edna took a shower and brushed her
teeth, listening to the faint sounds from the tape running downstairs.
Henry never said a word. The tape ended and she heard him rewind it. Then
he just sat there for a while. She thought he might have gone out but
then much later she heard the door open and close.
 he didn't see Henry
again until noon the next day. When she was having lunch, he came to the
front door.
“I have destroyed the tape.”
“Why? After all the trouble
I went to to find it?”
“It would have done us no good in court.
The judge and the people would have been so appalled at us for showing
such an abomination that the contents would be irrelevant. They never
would get past the fact of a human daring to act against our race. All
their reaction would have been against humans, not against the Blues.”
“Couldn't you have just used
it within very limited circles to deal with the Blues?”
“Nobody, including I, can look at
that tape and see anything other than an atrocity against our people.
It is inconceivable that a human, an animal, should ever, for an
instant, feel himself dominant to us!”
“That's a pretty deluded point of view.
Lou obviously was dominant to that guy, and I think there is a
bear out in the woods that was pretty dominant to you. You're only advantage
lies in the fact that we don't see you and know about you. You get what
you want by using our technology, but I don't think that makes you better
than us, or any species for that matter. Rats and cockroaches do that
much.”
“We took care of Lou. We get whatever
we want. We have the power. What more is there?”
cont. on page twenty-seven
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